Shipments of Cellular M2M Terminals to Reach 13.7 Million by 2022

Two thirds of the cellular M2M terminals sold globally during 2017 used 4G LTE as the main standard.

About 4.9 million cellular M2M terminals were shipped globally during 2016, an increase of 28.0 percent from the previous year, according to Berg Insight, the world’s M2M/IoT market research provider.

The research provider said growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.8 percent, this number is expected to reach 13.7 million in 2022.

Berg Insight defines cellular terminals as standalone devices intended for connecting M2M applications to a cellular network. These include primarily general-purpose cellular routers, gateways and modems that are enclosed in a chassis and have at least one input/output port.

Trackers, telematics devices and other specialised devices are excluded from this report.

Berg Insight has found that 4.9 million M2M terminals were sold globally during 2016 at a total market value of approximately $875 million.

“Adoption of 4G LTE in cellular routers, gateways and modems have increased rapidly in recent time due to increased focus on product life cycle costs and decommissioning of 2G networks”, said Fredrik Stålbrand, IoT Analyst, Berg Insight.

He adds that two thirds of the cellular M2M terminals sold globally during 2017 used 4G LTE as the main standard.

“LPWA technologies such as LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT are expected to ease the transition from 2G to LTE networks further”, continued Stålbrand.

In 2017, introductions of cellular M2M terminals featuring LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT technologies were made by Encore Networks, Maestro Wireless and MultiTech Systems and several vendors plan to launch new products with LPWA connectivity during 2018.

Two M2M terminal vendors have a global market share of more than 10 percent each.

Berg Insight ranks China-based SIMCom as the market leader with $181 million in revenues from sales of approximately 1.7 million terminals.

US-based Cradlepoint is the second largest provider with an estimated $115 million in revenues from terminal sales.

Top players further include Sierra Wireless and Digi International which generated $72 million and $47 million respectively from their terminal businesses. These four vendors held a combined market share of close to 50 percent in 2016.